WESTERN EUROPEAN NEWS DIGEST
BueSo Candidate Zepp LaRouche Leads Dialogue of Cultures Initiative
Helga Zepp LaRouche, the lead candidate of Germany's Buergerrechts Bewegung-Solidaritaet (BueSo, Civil Rights Movement-Solidarity) election slate, keynoted an impressive conference in the German capital city of Berlin on June 29. The conference, called "Dialogue of Cultures Along the New Silk Road," brought together speakers and intellectuals from the Middle East, Africa, Ibero-America, Europe, and the United States.
Zepp LaRouche, who is the wife of American political leader Lyndon LaRouche, spoke on the subject of "The Cradle of Progress Belongs to Humanity as a Whole." Her speech addressed three issues: the dangerous global strategic situation due to the onrushing financial and economic collapse; the solution embodied in the economic development program of the Eurasian Land-Bridge; and the concept of the dialogue of cultures. She addressed the escalating Middle East conflict, and how all this was already prepared by Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski in the 1970s. In the second part, she referred also to the speech by Lyndon LaRouche in Abu Dhabi in June, and the water problem as a reference point for what real infrastructure programs mean.
The answer to the problems of mankind can only be given by the poets and thinkers, emphasized Zepp LaRouche, because these are the real actors of universal history. She went through the similarities of the Old World cultures, as the Indian author Tilak described it from the standpoint of astronomy. Then she described the influence of the Arab world on the European civilization, addressing the parallels in thinking between Plato and Al Farabi, particularly on the concepts of Plato's philosopher-king, and also on the unity of faith and reason. Finally, she mentioned the relationship between Avicenna (Ibn Sina), the Renaissance thinker Nicholas Cusanus, and Gottfried Leibniz, and finished her speech with the recitation of two short poems by the Persian poet Saadi.
The event was strategically and philosophically powerful, with observers commenting that no other political party could conduct a dialogue at such a high level. Mrs. Amelia Boynton Robinson, a close collaborator of the LaRouches, and vice president of the Schiller Institute in the United States, also participated, having just completed a visit to Iran (see EIW 17).
London's Tony Dye Issues New Warnings Over Derivatives
The London financial analyst who was "hounded out" for predictingin February 2000a coming market blowout, and the danger of derivatives, is now being praised.
The London Daily Telegraph reported a "lurking time bomb" in the derivatives market, according to Tony Dye, one of the few investment fund managers with any brains, who issued the warning when he spoke at a hedge fund conference in London, on July 2.
The value of contracts for over-the-counter derivatives contracts is up to $110 trillion, three times the value of the world economy, Dye said. [He was citing the official Bank for International Settlements figure, which according to EIR analysts is grossly underestimated.]
Dye added: "The question is why people are using them so much. The real reason must be because some people are using these for 'creative accounting' purposes.... My guess is that there'll be some real nasties in the derivatives market in the next 12-18 months."
Dye said he has a negative view of stock markets and the U.S. economy, and warned of a fall to "fair value." While he only estimated that at 60% of the current level, he went on to say if that crash came in the next six months, "it is going to be very awful."
The end of the 1990s bull market is exposing "the aggressiveness of chief executives and accountants in creating fictitious numbers," Dye warned.
"We are coming to that period when we'll see all the fraudulent practices come to the surface. I would like to remind people that in 1991-92, people didn't realize that Japanese banks were almost bankrupt."
The Telegraph noted that Dye had been "hounded out" of his position as fund manager for Philipps & Drew in February 2000 for warning about the dangers of the new economy speculative bubble. But, wrote the Telegraph, just two weeks later, the Nasdaq started on its long plunge downwards.
Contempt for Bush Policies Dominates London Press
The Bush Administration's drive to launch neo-imperial "preemptive wars" against Iraq and other Arab nations, and the insanity of the "American model" of high financefrom the tech bubble to the Enron/WorldCom/Merrill Lynch, etc. etc. financial scandalsis causing increasingly visible tensions with Europe. The British press in particular expresses the contempt Europe has for the Bush Administration and its policies.
On Sunday, June 30, the leading Tory paper, the London Telegraph, owned by Canadian billionaire Conrad Black, reports that top aides to Prime Minister Tony Blair are privately denouncing American "blundering" in the Afghan war. A British cabinet minister negotiating with the Bush regime over steel tariffs said, "You have to remember that this is a rather unpleasant Administration." They report the "rift between Tony Blair and George W. Bush is set to deepen this week as the United States Administration rejects British calls to be spared from steel tariffs."
The London Observer joined in with a June 30 an article called "Bye, Bye American Pie," in which columnist Will Hutton said that the U.S. dollar is threatening to become a "toilet currency." Hutton says, "The integrity of the entire system ... is now in question, ... just as America's debts to foreigners and its own consumers' indebtedness have reached unsustainable levels." He sees the revival of the Southern Confederacy in the policies of "take-no-prisoners capitalism"; it is no accident that WorldCom is based in Trent Lott's Mississippi and Enron was from Texas. In a very non-British economic observation, Hutton says, "the need is to reregulate...."
On June 28, the International Herald Tribune ran an article called "Perpetual War Poses a Risk to U.S. Power," where commentator Daniel Warner warns, "All imperial powers arrived at a point of overreach that eventually destroyed the empire.... The irony of the current situation is that just at the moment when the Soviet Union imploded and the United States was the lone superpower, America is confronted with a situation that could easily lead to its implosion as well."
Anglo-American Imperial War Plan Against Iraq
"The sense here, is that a war by the United States against Iraq is coming soon; the only questions are, when and how," stated a very well-connected British strategist in London to EIR on July 4.
This source pointed to two new developments in the U.S.: first, is the ludicrous story from Miami, Fla. about how "Saddam Hussein's stepson" has been detained by authorities in Florida, for supposedly attempting to take flight courses at an aviation school attended by "one of the Sept. 11 hijackers." The source said: "You don't need to be much of a conspiracy theorist, to see this being used to claim that Saddam is plotting against America."
The second is the planned meeting, on the weekend of July 6-8, of 70 "Iraqi military officers" in Kensington, London. "I personally don't believe that there exists a strong opposition force against Saddam," he noted, "but the scenario I see in this, is that a new 'liberation force' will be created, that will constitute itself as a 'Provisional Government' of some sort. It will issue a call for the Americans to help them, to 'liberate' Iraq, and that will be used as a justification or trigger for the invasion."
The strategist recently participated in a BBC strategic round table, where the main focus was Iraq. He noted that, after discussion was concluded, the moderator of the round table asked, "Given what we've heard here, why would anybody in his right mind invade Iraq?" The strategist said, "That's a good question. But you have to see, that an ill-ease, a malaise, a sense of paralysis is now prevailing in the American government, and other governments. They think they have no options, with the economy and markets going down, and trust and confidence in them nosediving. In such moments, people often turn to war, as an 'option'."
EU Offers To Take Over UN Bosnia Peacekeeping Mission
In face of the Bush Administration threat to veto the mission's renewal unless U.S. peacekeepers are exempted from prosecution in International Criminal Court, the European Union offered to take over the UN's peacekeeping mission in Bosnia. The deadline for renewal of the Bosnia mission was midnight, July 3. The EU was not scheduled to take charge of the mission until January 2003, but EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said the EU would "do the utmost so that a vacuum is not created with an important mission in the Balkans."
However, the Bush Administration rescinded its threat to withdraw from the Bosnia mission, according to reports of a telephone call between Colin Powell and the Bosnian President. One hint of U.S. concern about the ICC appeared in a Hugo Young column in the London Guardian, in which Young, the Washington reporter, wrote that Henry Kissinger is "safe" since the crimes that can be prosecuted (e.g., war crimes) through the ICC are not retroactive.
Kissinger has been dodging subpoenas and court papers during his visits to Brazil and the United Kingdom, stemming from civil suits filed against him alleging his culpability in the overthrow of Chilean President Salvador Allende, and the subsequent human rights atrocities committed against Chilean supporters of Allende.
Cuts in Manpower, Maintenance Seen in Deadly Plane Crash
An automatic air collision warning system had been turned off for maintenance, Swiss air traffic controllers reported on July 3, regarding the horrific crash of a DHL cargo plane and a Russian Bashkirian Airline jet over Lake Constance in Germany on July 2, which killed 71 people, 52 of them Russian children en route for holiday in Spain.
A spokesman for Skyguide, the Swiss air traffic controllers association, reported the "short-term conflict alert system" had been shut down for "routine maintenance," which he added "is always done at night because that is when there is the least traffic." Germany's Transport Minister reported that Zurich flight controllers took over monitoring the Russian plane five minutes before the crash.
Swiss controllers said there was a delay in the Russian jet's response to warnings to reduce altitude 50 seconds before impact with the cargo plane, but German air-traffic controllers said the Russian pilot responded on the second warning, 25 seconds before the crash.
The Swiss controller said 50 seconds, although very close, is still within international standards"not ideal, but not impossible." Only one air traffic controller was on duty at the time, with an assistant, who was taking a break.
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